The Grainger College of Engineering
Civil & Environmental Engineering

Kathryn A. Zimmerman

Kathryn A. Zimmerman
Kathryn A. Zimmerman (BS 83, MS 85)
President
Applied Pavement Technology Inc.

CEEAA Distinguished Alumni Award, 2010

For outstanding leadership in, as well as contributions to, pavement research, design, construction and management technology; and for extensive service and dedication to engineering education, particularly the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois.

Biography

After earning her B.S. (1983) and M.S. (1985) degrees from the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Kathryn A. Zimmerman worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory in Champaign.   In 1987, she joined the staff of ERES Consultants Inc., where she was President of the company for three years before founding Applied Pavement Technology Inc. (APTech) in December 1994.  Throughout her career, Zimmerman has helped agencies improve the condition of their transportation assets through the use of computerized management systems.  In this capacity she has had the opportunity to work with federal and state transportation agencies, local governments, and airports.

Zimmerman has served in a leadership position for several professional organizations, including serving as current Chair of the Transportation Asset Management Committee of the Transportation Research Board and Chair of that organization’s Pavement Management Systems Committee from 1994 to 2000.  She was a member of the University of Illinois Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Board and served as President from 2002 to 2004.  Zimmerman has been recognized by the National Highway Institute with the Team Administrative Award in 2007 and 2008 and received the Young Alumni Civil Engineer Achievement Award (renamed the Young Alumnus Achievement Award in 2007) from the University of Illinois Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1992.

Zimmerman lives in Urbana, IL.  Her son, Michael S. Cation, is a 1999 graduate of the University of Illinois and the Assembly Hall Announcer for the University of Illinois Basketball Team.